Ford had launched the EcoSport a few months back in India. This compact crossover was launched by the company at a very aggressive price of Rs 5.50 lacs only. The car became a huge hit in the country. The buyers went crazy for EcoSport and the car sold 30,000 units in just 17 days after its launch. It became Ford’s best seller and because of EcoSport the company was able to achieve sales figures like never before.
The car is manufactured at the company’s manufacturing unit in Chennai. The production capacity of this car is not able to keep up with the demand for this car. The customers are getting a waiting period of 4 to 8 months, depending upon the variant, before they actually get their EcoSport. The most popular model Titanium 1.5 liter VCT sees a waiting period of around 8 months.
When the car was seeing a waiting period of months in the domestic market, the company started exporting the car to other countries. Right after the launch the company started exporting EcoSport to Nepal. A few weeks back, the company began exporting EcoSport to South Africa. Ford India also commented that by the end of this year it will export EcoSport to Europe as well. India will be the manufacturing hub of EcoSport for these exports. This came as a big surprise because the company was being very active in the export area in spite of not being able to fulfill the requirements in the domestic market. As a result it was expected that the waiting periods will only increase in the coming weeks.
Now it has been announced that Ford dealerships have stopped taking booking orders for the EcoSport. But the halt in taking orders is varying throughout the EcoSport dealership network in the country. Some dealerships are not taking bookings for the mid and top end variants with diesel run models while some are not taking bookings for the lower end trims of EcoSport diesel model. A few number of dealers have stopped taking orders for the 1 liter Ecoboost engine powered EcoSport which is optional.
An official from Ford India said that “We are witnessing an extended waiting period on certain variants and have temporarily stopped taking bookings on a few variants.” The company has not specified anything about the pending orders that need to be fulfilled by them. But all the variants have a minimum waiting period of 4 months.
As per figures released by SIAM, Ford India has sold a total of 8717 units of EcoSport till July. Out of this, 4,715 units were sold in July itself. The petrol variants of this SUV have been priced in the range of Rs 5.99 lacs to Rs 8.44 lacs. The diesel run models of EcoSport are been offered in the price range of Rs 6.69 lacs and Rs 8.99 lacs. The EcoSport powered by the latest Ecoboost technology is being offered at a price of Rs 7.89 lacs.
Since its launch the EcoSport has given esteemed cars like Renault Duster a tough competition. The EcoSport has eaten up sales of most of the cars in its segment. The newly launched Nissan Terrano will also be competing with the Ford EcoSport. Only time will say whether it can match with the EcoSport sales figures or not.